Citizen feedback to play important role in clean city rankings

Citizen feedback will play a major role in deciding the outcome of Swachh Survekshan-2018, the national clean city ranking, according to Satish Kumar, Technical Officer, Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

Speaking at a regional workshop for heads of Corporations, Municipalities and Town Panchayats on methodology of Swachh Survekashan 2018 here on Saturday, he said that many changes have been introduced so as to improve the efficiency and accuracy of national level ranking.

Cities with the population of over 10 lakh took part in the Swachh Survekshan when it was introduced in 2016 for the first. It had gone up to 434 in 2017. A total of 4041 statutory cities and towns in the country will participate in 2018 survey.

Mr. Kumar said the total marks has been increased to 4,000 from 2,000. The addition of new towns and the methodology that has allowed cross checking of facts and figures and awarding of negative marks had made the competition very tough. Hence, the civic bodies that aim for top ranking should study the methodology manual well so as to have clear understanding of marking system.

He said out of 4,000 marks, 35 % would be earmarked for service level progress and 30 % for direct observation. Thirty-five per cent marks would be allotted for citizen feedback. It meant that it would have a major say in deciding the outcome of clean city ranking. Hence, it was important for the civic bodies to respond to the calls of citizens in solid waste management.

Fastinz Gomez, Consultant, National Programme Management Unit, said the civic bodies should furnish data that should match with direct observation. If the data and direction observation were differing, the civic bodies concerned would have to lose one-third marks as negative marks in the respective head.

Inaugurating the workshop, Collector K. Rajamani urged cities and towns to make a sincere attempt to improve their ranking in the Swachh Survekshan. Among all procedures, he said, documentation would be an important element in the survey. The civic bodies should be well versed with the documentation process.

Commissioner N. Ravichandran said that Tiruchi Corporation had been finishing in the top 10 rank list in the Swachh Survekshan since the concept was introduced. It had initiated a number of steps to improve its ranking.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Tiruchirapalli/citizen-feedback-to-play-important-role-in-clean-city-rankings/article19826747.ece